Jack Talks Maxing Out

Maxing out is a must in strength training, not only does it tax your Central Nervous System causing adaptations, it exposes weaknesses within the chain. Lets look at a simple example of deadlifting. If someone struggles to budge a weight off the floor, most of the time it’s due to weak Hamstrings, or tight hips not allowing for a proper set up to initiate leg drive. Or maybe an athlete starts to breakdown right at the knee during the deadlift, this is a weak back, this is the farthest the bar is going to be away from the hip, and the low back is under a lot of the stress. Lastly, if someone cannot seem to lock out heavy deadlifts efficiently or at all, that is a sign of weak glutes (aka your butt).

The reason I can tell you all that info is through personal experience, when I max out, I push the weight past my previous PR, but only 5-10 lbs. This allows me to usually still complete the new record, but still identify where the weak point in the lift is. If I never go past 80% of what I’m actually capable of, well, damn I look freaking flawless, yet still not getting stronger. If you cannot identify your weaknesses, or not getting to the point where your coaches can’t see any weak points, you will plateau VERY fast.

It’s recommended that you only jump 5-10 lbs over your previous PR is because too big of a jump might be too much for your body to handle at the time, which THAT is what leads to injury, athletes being greedy and impatient with progress. Even if I feel like I have more in the tank, I call it and take it as a win, that way I’m super confident going into my next max session for that lift. But the moral of the story here is you should be maxing out, identifying your weaknesses and attacking said weaknesses. In the end, it’s about training smarter, not necessarily just harder.